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Although written at the end of the long nineteenth century,
Victor Segalen’s theoretical work, the Essai sur
l’exotisme [Essay on Exoticism] speaks directly to
many twentieth- and twenty-first-century concerns, particularly
issues raised by post-colonial theory and intercultural studies.
Segalen (1878-1919) was a Breton naval doctor, novelist, poet and
archaeologist. Highly respected in select literary circles, he was
nevertheless considered a minor writer in his own lifetime, and his
importance only began to be recognized in the mid twentieth
century. The Essai bridges the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries: though incomplete, it is an ambitious and broad-ranging
attempt to renew the notion of …

35763Essai sur l'exotisme3Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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